Friday 2/22 – Thursday 2/28
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Also on the subject of saxophones, the Jazz Institute of Chicago is inaugurating its fifth year of free concerts and workshops with the debut of Saxophone Summit, an evening of world-class Chicago-based saxophonists at the Tuley Park auditorium, 501 E. 90th Place. Backed by a three-piece rhythm section, the lineup includes Mwata Bowden, Taku Akiyama, Duke Payne, Eric Schneider, and the legendary Von Freeman. The event, presented in collaboration with the Chicago Park District, starts at 7 PM (which is, what, around 8 PM jazz time?). It’s free but seating is limited. Call 312-427-1676 for more information.
23 SATURDAY OK, so Theater Fever sounds like one of those lame themes that high school student councils use to jazz up homecoming. But from 11 AM until 3 PM today, workshops and performances will cram every nook and cranny of the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington). The full spectrum of Chicago theater will be represented, from the big dogs at Steppenwolf to the little guys who can’t even afford a ratty storefront space. At noon, for example, choreographer Kenny Ingram teaches hip-hop dancing in Preston Bradley Hall, while folks from Chicago Dramatists conduct a playwriting workshop in the G.A.R. Hall Annex and members of the Stockyards Theatre Project “get in touch with their personal creative goddess” in the Visitor Information Center. It’s all free and no reservations are required, although some activities will probably fill up fast. For more information call 312-742-1079 or visit the League of Chicago Theatres’ Web site (www.chicagoplays.com) for a full schedule of events.
27 WEDNESDAY What do you do when the media single you out as the spokesperson for a subset of the American experience? If you’re Amy Tan, author of the best-selling 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club, you insist that you are writing only for yourself, as she asserted in a 1996 essay in The Threepenny Review–even as publicists hyped her as the voice of her generation of Asian-American women. Hopefully, such contradictions only add spice to a writer’s public persona. Tan will speak about her life and writing tonight at 7 in the auditorium of Loyola University Chicago’s Sky Building, 6363 N. Sheridan (312-915-6164). She’s currently touring to promote the paperback edition of her 2001 novel, The Bonesetter’s Daughter. A book signing will follow the free lecture.
